Islam : a short history

by Karen Armstrong. New York : Modern Library, 2000.
ISBN: 0679640401

Contents: 1. Beginnings. The prophet (570-632) –Rashidun (632-661) –First fitnah –2. Development. The Umayyads and the second fitnah –The religious movement –The last years of the Umayyads (705-750) –The Abbasids : high caliphal period (750-935) –The esoteric movements –3. Culmination. A new order (935-1258) –The crusades –Expansion –The Mongols (1220-1500) –4. Islam triumphant. Imperial Islam (1500-1700) –The Safavid empire –The Moghul empire –The Ottoman empire –5. Islam agonistes. The arrival of the west (1750-2000) –What is a modern Muslim state? –Fundamentalism –Muslims in a minority –The way forward –Key figures in the history of Islam –Glossary of Arabic terms –Notes –Suggestions for further reading –Index

In this short history book Karen Armstrong demonstrates that the world’s fastest-growing faith is a much richer and more complex phenomenon than its modern fundamentalist strain might suggest.